Ban Proposed on Campaign Signatures from County Employees at Work

ByNICK GERDA |June 23, 2014

Amid a district attorney inquiry into how Assessor Webster Guillory obtained nomination signatures from subordinates during work hours, a county supervisor is asking his colleagues to ban the practice.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer’s proposed ordinance states that "no person may solicit for the nomination paper for any local, state, or federal office the signature of any County employee at his or her workplace.”

Laws at both the state and federal levels, as well as case law, have all established the general principle that the resources provided by taxpayers should not be used to support candidates for election or a position on a ballot measure.

Guillory, who had been rumored to be mulling retirement this year after several terms as county assessor, left his political opponents guessing until the March 7 filing deadline, picking up his filing papers that Friday afternoon, according to several sources.

He returned his petitions to the Registrar of Voters later that same day, stipulating with his signature that he himself had witnessed circulation of the nomination papers. According to filing documents, his second-in-command, Shaw Lin, also stipulated that he also circulated nomination papers for his boss.

Guillory has said his employees’ signatures were gathered outside the assessor’s civic center offices that day while on employee breaks.

It’s unclear how nearly two-dozen employees communicated about supporting their boss for re-election that Friday and coordinated their breaks so they could sign the nomination papers.

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